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Ontario elementary teachers, Liberals move closer to deal

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario says it has reached “understandings” with the government on issues like retirement payouts, plus maternity, sick leave

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, says elementary teachers have been promised improvements to maternity and sick leave benefits, as well as increased payouts for unused sick days (Aaron Vincent Elkaim / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo)

Ontario’s public elementary teachers have been promised improvements to maternity and sick leave benefits, as well as increased payouts for unused sick days as their union moves closer to a deal with the province, president Sam Hammond said Wednesday.

After meeting with local presidents at the union’s downtown Toronto headquarters, Hammond told reporters that “understandings” had been reached that are “significant” for the 76,000 members the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario represents.

“We are confident that ongoing dialogue will result in full agreement being reached,” Hammond said, though he did not know how long that would take.

The news comes just days after the province’s public high school teachers announced an agreement in principle with the government that also increased unused sick-day payouts to newer teachers, and offers improvements in the same areas as the elementary teachers.

In recent weeks, both unions have given teachers the go-ahead to resume extracurricular activities after a tumultuous school year that saw students go without sports and clubs because of the province’s controversial Bill 115 and the two-year contracts imposed on them.

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ETFO also says the government has agreed to a “workload study” that insiders assume will include a look at provincial standardized tests the union opposes.

Progressive Conservative MPP and education critic Lisa MacLeod has said the retirement “wind-up payments” — which are in lieu of big payouts of unused sick days at retirement — could cost the province $63 million.

“The government is prepared at any cost to buy peace with this union . . . the money is coming from somewhere,” she told reporters, charging the government is “backtracking” from its austerity talk on teacher costs last fall.

Martin Long, president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, said the gains promised are a big step forward.

“More discussion is taking place — we’re not at the end of the process yet,” he said.

As far as extracurricular activities are concerned, “I think things are slowly reverting to more normal circumstances,” he added.

The education ministry would not say how much the deal with OSSTF or promises to ETFO will cost, but has said it is covered by unexpected savings under the imposed contracts.

In Kingston, Premier Kathleen Wynne at first avoided the mention of money for high school teachers to sweeten their losses on sick days.

When confronted, Wynne confirmed she said it was “goodwill” that won the day with public secondary teachers.

Wynne acknowledged that there has been changes in the way that money has been allocated “but we have not put new money into the collective agreement.”

With files from Rob Ferguson and Richard J. Brennan

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